October 22, 2013 2:36pm EDTOctober 19, 2013 11:58pm EDTsponsor:enterpriseWant a team that can stand toe to toe with top-ranked Alabama? SN's Mat Hayes says that team resides in Tallahassee, where Florida State looks like the big, bad team it was more than a decade ago after dismantling Clemson.

“We weren’t who we wanted to be,” FSU wideout Rashad Greene said this spring.

They are now.

These are your ‘Noles of old, ladies and gentlemen. Big and bad and pumped and poised and stomping all over this big moment of the college football season.

The only thing a 51-14 emasculation of Clemson lacked was Neon Deion himself, standing at the bottom of The Hill before the game like he did in 1988 when the aura of all those dominating FSU teams was first built, daring Tigers players to come down and take their beating.

As it was, this wipeout ended with the most points scored against Clemson in Death Valley history—and the visiting team’s fans storming the field for their own little party of a couple thousand.

Fast-forward six months to the latest assessment from Greene: “We’re definitely the best team in the country. I don’t put us second to none.”

They’ve waited 12 long years for this; a college football lifetime of sorts. Three full recruiting classes—four years per class—have known FSU as nothing but good not great; steady not spectacular.

Now there’s this: FSU is better on the line of scrimmage, has better skill players, has better coaching, than anyone this side of Alabama. Looking for a team that can stand toe to toe with the mighty Tide and not flinch? Here’s your group.

Look, I’ve seen Alabama outlast Texas A&M and play no one else. I’ve watched Ohio State play a Pop Warner schedule, and nearly lose to Northwestern.

I’ve watched Oregon and Baylor roll up ridiculous numbers against teams that offer little resistance. There is no one—not even Alabama—playing better this season than Florida State.

How many FSU teams over the lost decade proudly proclaimed this year would be different, then folded like a cheap pup tent in inexplicable losses to Wake Forest, or NC State or any other team FSU had no business losing to year after year.

Prior to this season, the Seminoles lost as double-digit favorites five times in three years under Jimbo Fisher, further underscoring this program’s lost years. Only this offseason, after losing an unthinkable 11 players to the NFL Draft, something strange happened: FSU got closer as a team.

While most teams were using spring practice as a tune-up before the grind of fall camp, FSU was pushing through with precision and persistence and developing a killer instinct that plays out in games like these. It was then that an NFL scout told me that of all the teams he’d seen, FSU is the team closest to Alabama in terms of sheer size and talent.

“Grown ass men,” he said.

After FSU destroyed Clemson in the biggest game ever here, that statement couldn’t have been more clear—both physically and mentally. How many teams lose that many elite players to the draft, and get better?

How many teams lose that many upperclassmen, and find more leadership, more desire to embrace the past instead of running from it—or acting like you’ve already caught it?

“Those are big expectations to live up to here,” said FSU safety Lamarcus Joyner. “A lot of pressure. But we’ve got guys who want that burden on their backs; guys who want to make the play when you need it.”

At some point in this beauty pageant of a demolition derby we call the annual BCS race, you must take a step back and watch. Watch teams; watch how they play and how they react to success and adversity.

Ohio State isn’t getting any closer to FSU than Clemson did. Nor is Baylor. Frankly, if FSU played like it did on this chilly night in upstate South Carolina, Oregon and Alabama aren’t getting it done, either.

We’ve looked for years for the team that could dethrone Alabama and the SEC. Who would’ve imagined it would be Florida State, the team of all-talk no-walk for more than a decade, rising up and playing like FSU of the past.

It was so dominating and so destructive, you could have sworn it was the 2000 ‘Noles running around Death Valley with 28-year-old Chris Weinke throwing darts all over the joint. Instead it was 19-year-old redshirt freshman Jameis Winston, who is so good and so young after just six career starts, the only question lingering is why in the world didn’t Fisher play him last year instead of dealing with the roller-coaster that was EJ Manuel?

And if you don’t think that’s the 400-pound elephant in the room, listen to Joyner explain the maturation of his quarterback now:

“He was making throws on the scout team last year as a true freshman that EJ was just developing as a senior,” Joyner said.

All Winston did Saturday night was throw for 444 yards and three touchdowns, and add a short touchdown run while calmly leading FSU into a trap of a madhouse. It was deafening and Winston was making his first road start against a ranked team, and before you know it, he threw a 72-yard touchdown pass to Greene to put FSU up 24-7 and end all hope for Clemson.

“We weren’t playing noise, man,” said Winston, who has led FSU to two wins against ranked teams this fall by a combined 114-14. “We were playing Clemson.”

When you’ve got a star who makes it look easy; when you’ve got a leader who is unflappable, these top 10 fistfights don’t look so daunting. Just like more than a decade ago, when the FSU of old played its best when it mattered most.

These ‘Noles look more and more like those FSU teams with every game they play. They’re mean and nasty on the lines of scrimmage, and they’re fast and athletic at the skill positions on offense and in the back seven on defense.

At one point during the three hours of agony for a packed and juiced Memorial Stadium, a microcosm of what FSU has finally become under Fisher played out with sweet simplicity. Winston threw a basic flat pass to tight end Nick O’Leary, who turned up field and ran over Clemson safety Travis Blanks—punctuating the play with a get-out-of-my-way forearm shiver.

Three plays later, Winston did what he does best: when the play breaks down, he makes everything better, scrambling for a 4-yard touchdown and a 34-point lead that began to empty the stadium.

I ask you, what team does that sound like?

Want a true example of what Florida State has become under Jimbo Fisher? Look no further than Alabama under Nick Saban.

An assistant under Saban in the early 2000s at LSU, Fisher built this FSU program with the specs given to him from Saban. It begins with winning on the recruiting trail, and ends with physically and mentally developing players.

Fisher beat his mentor for some of the very key players on his roster, including Winston, defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan and defensive end Mario Edwards. You get players, and then you fold them into your organization—and if all goes well, it develops into a unique, unrivaled chemistry and attitude that becomes the fabric of a program.

Manuel proclaimed last year that “next year is this year,” in reference to FSU’s much-mocked mantra while season after season ticked away over the lost decade.